Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to a game device, a method of game processing, and an arcade game device.
Related Art
Conventional arcade game devices installed in a video arcade are used so that a plurality of players can play the same game. It is also possible to play so-called online games, in which game programs are downloaded onto smart phones and other such mobile terminals, with game progress processing performed on the server side, and the processing results displayed at each mobile terminal.
Among such conventional games, there are games in which some kind of cost (such as “stamina”) is consumed in order to execute a game action within the game (such as a “quest”), and the consumed stamina is restored as time passes.
In these conventional games, the games cannot be continued once a player's stamina is used up. Therefore, the players of the game can choose either to wait for the stamina to be restored as time passes, or acquire a restoration item by payment of a fee to restore the stamina right away, and continue the game.
When a restoration item acquired by payment is used, what usually happens is that some small portion of stamina ends up being left over. For instance, if the maximum stamina value is 100, and if the current stamina is 28 in a game that consumes 30 units of stamina to perform a quest, then when a restoration item is used at that point, the stamina that was at 28 is fully restored to 100. Whether the stamina is at 0 or at 28, it will become 100 after the restoration item is used, so when the stamina is 28, the player may end up feeling as if he wasted the 28 units of stamina that he originally had. Therefore, typical player behavior is to wait for a stamina level of 28 to be restored to 30, perform one quest that consumes a stamina of 30, and only then use the restoration item.
Also, in a game in which 30 units of stamina are consumed in order to perform a quest with a relatively high reward and 10 units of stamina are consumed to perform a quest with a relatively low reward, if the current stamina level is at 21, typical player behavior is to reluctantly perform two quests that consume 10 units of stamina to earn a reward and then use the restoration item, in order to avoid losing all 21 units of the stamina.
However, constant waiting around for stamina to be restored during the game may cause to drag down the tempo of the game. Patent Literature 1 has disclosed technologies to increase stamina over the restoration upper limit value for stamina by payment of a fee.
Patent Literature 1: Japanese Patent No. 5,618,221
With the technique disclosed in Patent Literature 1, however, stamina can be increased beyond the restoration upper limit value for stamina by payment of a fee (or using a purchased item), but when the restoration upper limit value for stamina is exceeded, there is no restoration of stamina over time. Accordingly, a player may feel that a state of being at less than the restoration upper limit value in which stamina is restored over time is better than a state of being at or above the restoration upper limit value in which stamina is not restored over time. As a result, a player who wants to play a game a set number of times breaks up the fee payment into smaller payments after waiting for the stamina to drop below the restoration upper limit value, rather than paying the fee in a lump sum, which ends up slowing down the tempo of game play.